In a digital camera, an image photographed by an image pickup device such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) or the like is stored in a detachable non-volatile memory such as a memory stick (registered trademark) or the like. The image which is stored in the non-volatile memory is ordinarily compressed by using a compression system such as JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) or the like. In recent years, functions of the digital camera have been advanced and the camera which can photograph a still image and can also photograph a motion image has been proposed. In the digital camera which can photograph a motion image, the photographed motion image is compressed by, for example, MPEG (Moving Picture Coding Experts Group) system and stored in the non-volatile memory in a file format of MPEG.
As mentioned above, in recent years, the functions of the digital camera have been advanced and there is a camera which can photograph not only the still image but also the motion image. In such a digital camera, there is such a demand that the user wants to extract the image of a specific frame from the photographed motion image, print it by a printer, and enjoy it. In the case of printing the specific frame of the motion image photographed by the digital camera, the following two methods have been known hitherto.
(1) The motion image stored in the non-volatile memory is transferred to a personal computer, the motion image is transferred to a personal computer system to which a printer is connected, the frame which the user wants to print is selected while reproducing the image on the system, and the image is printed by the printer connected to the personal computer.
As a system in which the print frame is selected and printed by the printer itself, the system as shown in Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2001-78127) has been proposed.
(2) The print frame is selected on a monitor of a system (for example, digital camera) which photographed the motion image and information of the selected frame is used as print information and stored as another file into the non-volatile memory. Subsequently, the non-volatile memory is inserted into the printer and the image is printed.
As a system using such a method, the systems shown in Patent Document 2 (JP-A-2001-251573) and Patent Document 3 (JP-A-2000-333123) have been proposed.
With respect to direct printing of the motion image, the method of printing a video image of a digital video camera by using IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 1394 has been proposed in Patent Document 4 (JP-A-2001-328314).
However, according to the method whereby the motion image stored in the non-volatile memory is transferred to the personal computer and printed by the printer connected to the personal computer or the method whereby the print frame is selected on the monitor of the system which photographed the motion image, the information of the selected frame is used as print information and stored as another file into the non-volatile memory, the non-volatile memory is inserted into the printer, and the image is printed, there is such a problem that the image data of the photographed image has to be transferred from the image pickup apparatus to another system and the motion image cannot be easily printed. The motion image frames which can be printed by those methods are limited to a specific motion image format in which the image data can be decompressed (decoded) on the printer side.
Therefore, it is demanded that the digital camera and the printer are directly connected and user can enjoy by easily printing a desired frame of the motion image photographed by the digital camera.
With respect to a system in which the digital camera and the printer are directly connected and the frame of the photographed motion image can be directly printed by the printer, the system shown in Patent Document 4 exists. However, in Patent Document 4, the method of printing the video image of the digital video camera by using IEEE1394 has been proposed and it is limited to use in a specific interface and the motion image format and it is lacking in generality.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a digital camera apparatus in which a digital camera and a printer are directly connected, a desired frame of a motion image photographed by the digital camera can be easily printed, and it does not depend on specific image format and interfaces and to provide a printing method of such a digital camera.